Principal: Ithemba Institute of Technology
For the most part, industry and education are two separate entities which never gather round a partnership table. As a teacher in a state school, Uzendt Peters knew that if skills-dependent industries wanted skilled labour, and his pupils wanted jobs, that industry had to be brought into the education field.
Which is exactly what he did. He took a run-down old school in Soweto and converted it into the Ithemba Institute of Technology – a place where big business can have a hand in enabling skills development in their particular field.
From helping with the curriculum to equipping the workshops with industry-relevant equipment, big business is making sure that skilled labour is coming out of Soweto.
The remarkable thing about this project is that companies that are usually competitors in the marketplace are now working together for the development of skills in their particular sector.
Uzendt has created an institute that teaches South Africa a very important lesson – that a private-public partnership can be used to solve the serious problem of skills in our country.
“The youth is the most important asset in this country. We need to invest in our youth, and that is what I hope my contribution can be.”
For more information, e-mail info@ithembainstitute.org.za
Story published on SAinfo on 22 August 2008.
Source: Brand South Africa
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